Glad to hear it, that's the main reason I do these logs as I progress. I'm always looking at other builds and trying to incorporate parts of what I see into the parts I either have on hand, or can fairly easily get. In some cases the plans work out, in others (like attempting to put a bend into the tubing) not so much.... ;)

Leaktesting round two. One of the ghost barbs on the vid card leaked a bit.... replaced the barb and added a wee bit of plumbers' helper to the threads and I seem to be good to go.

In order to fill the loop I needed access to the fill port on the bay res so I had to be able to pull it right out of the case for filling / leaktesting which is one of the reasons why I set it up for easy removal of the lower tubing from the standoff.

As far as the functioning of the parallel loop goes, we've passed the first hurdle in that there seems to be tons of flow through the gpu. I won't know for sure about the CPU until I can get some temp readings off of it, but there's very little restriction on that block so I'm relatively confident that it'll be fine.

On another note.... what a pain in the arse doing anything with that motherboard tray once the GPU / CPU loop is secured, and the cables from the front portion of the motherboard are routed properly (not connected to the motherboard, just stowed away under the rad). I had to lift up the one side to tighten up the screw under the tray that's securing the clamp standoff and I had to disconnect damn near every connector as well as break the loop (this was prior to filling it with water).

Moving the motherboard tray around with a thin rad installed is a major PITA, and I don't even want to think what it would be like with a thicker one in there (I probably would consider removing the rad for access).

edit: Loop only took a couple of hours to bleed itself (1/2 hour active power on/power off bleeding to start). So far so good.

It's certainly unique and while it's got some quirks I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to somebody so long as they were aware of the shortcomings.

Quick and dirty results on the loop are in and they're mostly positive.

The CPU block appears to be on par with the previous serial loop in a traditional case and while the GPU temps seem to have taken a bit of a hit it's not that bad.

CPU after 20 minutes OCCT was 63 vice 58 (about on par considering +5c ambient) and after 15 minutes Kombustor the GPU is maxing out at 69c which is about 10c more than what I remember so it's off by about 5c even after adjusting for a higher ambient temp.

Quite frankly if the only hit was about 5c on the vid card I'm more than happy with the outcome.

edit: disregard the temps listed in this post... when checking temps on a new loop, it generally helps if all of the rad fans are running....

edit #2: 15c difference on the GPU with two fans running vice only one.... ;)

Basically an attempt to take the test bench format into the mainstream. The XB would be a bit weird to use as an actual test bed because of the lack of access to the lower half once the motherboard tray is in place, but it's a good start, and the price is certainly right at around $100. WCing it is a bit of a chore, but I'm quite happy with the results, and it's a relatively straight forward loop in spite of the cramped working conditions.

On to final pics & comments..... ;)

I've had a couple of folks question why I put so much work into WC'd rigs inside cases without windows and while my picture taking skills are most certainly lacking hopefully these pics will help explain it a bit... :)

I don't put my PCs on display, and honestly don't have that much traffic going past them, but what I'd like to think happens from time to time is the "WTH factor" where the light catches something inside the case through a grill which looks completely out of place and thus grabs the person's attention. Does it work?? Not all that often, but every once in a while I'll get a "wait a minute... what the H E double hockey sticks is going on inside there?" comment. :)

As per my previous comments, not much going on from the outside of the case unless you happen to notice the small(ish) cutout for the res. I ended up repainting that res cover after tearing the coating when I tightened the screws the first time I installed it. If you're going to use something like progrip then keep the "just tight enough" principal in mind. :)

And no... the water level isn't low in my res, what's visible in the pic is from the way the return line tube is manufactured internal to the res.

Here's the loop I ended up with. After some discussion ( CPU block in parallel with GPU block? ) I decided to try out a loop which put the GPU and CPU in parallel and keep my fingers crossed that the two blocks would be reasonably well matched for flow otherwise the consensus was that I'd get poor cooling on the more restrictive block. After throwing everything I could at it I'm happy to report that the two blocks seem to be well matched. After 1 1/2 hrs of simultaneous 100% CPU and 99% GPU load I maxed out at 62c for both @ ambient of 27c. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

As far as clearances go, the tubing doesn't rub up against any of the case, but the two exiting the res are touching ever so slightly... not enough to affect the loop at all, and IMO not enough that I'll see any wear from vibrations.

Finally, just a quick shot of the lower compartment PSU side, my jury rigged SSD mount, upper compartment / under rad wire stowage, and something that really didn't work out the way I wanted it to.... ;)

On the SSD side, the X-Docks seem to be working fine, but I've still got SATA power connectors to spare in case they crap out. I've also run an extra SATA Data cable and tucked it away under those wires. This will allow me to slave in an optical drive if I end up without access to my USB one.

In the second picture you can see the ample room under the rad for stowing and securing cables. It's been mentioned in most of the reviews I've seen, but it's worth saying again that Cooler Master really went out of their way to get the cable management portion of this case just right.

Now... as to what didn't really work.... ;)

Dead center of that image is the main MB power connector and no, that's not electrical tape.... it's a rubberized tape that stretches and shapes to any form.... as a protection against damage it's not bad at all, for looks I'd give it a 2/10 at best.... ;)

I'm even considering spraying it with the progrip, but I'll save that for a later day.

Here's the loop I ended up with. After some discussion ( CPU block in parallel with GPU block? ) I decided to try out a loop which put the GPU and CPU in parallel and keep my fingers crossed that the two blocks would be reasonably well matched for flow otherwise the consensus was that I'd get poor cooling on the more restrictive block. After throwing everything I could at it I'm happy to report that the two blocks seem to be well matched. After 1 1/2 hrs of simultaneous 100% CPU and 99% GPU load I maxed out at 62c for both @ ambient of 27c. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

Glad that thing worked out for ya mang! That's awesome and it looks awesome too! Great job on this build!